


In high and low places

by Keenir



Category: Ant-Man (Movies), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: (not my character - borrowing only and will return in good condition), Gen, Original Male Character - Freeform, Scott gets verbose, Thor gets verbose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-07
Updated: 2015-11-07
Packaged: 2018-04-30 11:02:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5161325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keenir/pseuds/Keenir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, all that stops us from turning to the Dark Side, are friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In high and low places

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Good Does Not Equal Nice](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5160107) by [tielan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan). 



> Whether or not this can stand alone, this story was inspired by Tielan's _Good does not equal nice_ , which made me think of some Avengers who might go to bat for Unnamed.
> 
> Regardless, you should read Good does not equal nice.

 You're sitting in the south exercise room, trying to focus on the weights you're lifting, though your attention keeps drifting over to the pair of Avengers standing by the doorway.  Even they - even the Avengers themselves - think you work for HYDRA, or did until the organization broke apart in a burning ship falling from the sky.

Some guy comes over and helps you set your weights up so your arms can rest after...you realize you hadn't been counting how many repetitions you did.

"Let me guess," the guy said, leaning on weights bar, entirely too relaxed about this, about the suited-up Avengers by the door.  Though your eye's good enough to notice that he's only looking like he's leaning - he's very careful not to actually apply pressure or force against the bar.  "You got out of a bad place before you had to do anything that would've dropkicked your soul, torn your heart, or otherwise made you into somebody who'd make civilized folks sick to their stomachs. But it doesn't matter, because you were in that bad place, and it doesn't matter that you got out before doing the bad stuff - people whisper. Cops look the other way when you're being questioned, mothers clutch their children tighter if you're walking by, and no matter who vouches for you...there's nobody who wants to work with you."

You try not to think about Director Fury's approval and transfer order for you, because that only reminds you of the whispers, and of the looks you know you're getting, from the comments that anyone sane would take as a veiled threat - unless, a corner of your mind reiterates, you find it threatening because they're right.  Or they see themselves as right.  And when have the Avengers been wrong?

And if the Avengers think so, lots of people see that as license to whisper louder and stare more murderously and belittle you more. After all, they agree with the Avengers; and you obviously don't, because you're the one they're watching like proverbial hawks.

The guy isn't done:  "And some people, they think that if you're skilled enough to get into that bad place, you can keep using those skills for this and that, though you know you'll just end back in another bad place if you do, or a worse place. 

"And then there's you, thinking that if everyone already thinks you're evil because of being in the bad place, why not prove them right?  Why not say BOO and laugh when they jump?"

The thought had been there - HYDRA's still around, after all - a thought that had lasted barely two seconds, as your loyalty to the ideals of Agent Carter {Director, Retired} were still as strong as ever.

The guy smiles at you. "I'm Scott. Or as they've started calling me, I'm the new Ant-Man," and he holds out his hand to you. "Fellow graduate of Bad Places Everywhere, even if we weren't on the same campus."

You're not sure how bad a place Scott was in, that it compares to HYDRA, and surely the Ant-Man, as an Avenger, would know all about HYDRA and how they nearly... You take his hand, trying not to clutch it like a liferaft, no matter how apt that analogy may be.

Scott asks you, "Feel up for a jog?  I just got here today, and feel like a run's in order."  You agree, because why would you refuse one of the few people who hasn't shot you dire looks, made whispers that make you nervous, or beaten things that could substitute for your body; why turn down a potential friend?

* * *

You are drinking in the commissary - just a drink, food doesn't stay down these days, not that you have much of an appetite, given how things are going for you - when Thor himself walks up to you.  You turn around and face him, looking up up up at him...because really, what else could you do?  "Yes?" you ask.

"I would have words with you," Thor says, and anyone sitting at a nearby table evacuates for someplace further away.  Under his breath and making a face, "The cowards, fleeing a harmless conversation, when they rally eagerly, excitedly when I raise my Hammer towards battle; no matter, it affords you and I some privacy."  He looks at you, face calmer and voice regular, and he says, "What I have to say, need be said to all the Avengers as well - though I feel you deserve to know this first, as it concerns you as much as it does my cousins."

Cousins?  You hold your tongue, trying and failing not to glance to one side at his Hammer.

"First, I have a question for you," Thor says, and isn't so much looking at as staring into you.  "Did you knowingly work with them in their dark arts?  Are you of their number?"

"I am not HYDRA," you say, and you half expect it to go unheard - there's a reason why you haven't bothered to say it much, after all.  "I never willingly and knowingly helped them."

More stares from Thor.

You find you prefer this over what you get from everyone else: at least Thor isn't subtle about it.

You'd tell your doctor about the constant stress of being watched and questioned and everything, but your doctor is SHIELD and probably one of the ones who doesn't trust you already - if you say you're on edge, why, that can only be confirmation. Unlike the old saying about warfare, this is long stretches of stress and activity punctuated by brief moments of sleep (not boredom, otherwise it would have been a perfect inversion of the old saying) when you finally can't avoid sleep any further, but at least you're too exhausted to dream.

Then he relaxes.  "Good.  Then I was not mistaken.  You are like my cousins.

"I fought against my cousins as often as I fought alongside them, much as for even more of my life I fought alongside my brother Loki - what I am to tell you, does not concern Loki," Thor says.  "But after the last battle we had, everyone distanced distanced themselves from my cousins.  Distrust fell upon any who so much as spoke to the two cousins of mine, and I confess I was not a help, being far away which only worsened things I fear.  It grew so bad that my cousins' tutors were forced to break ties with them, ending their lessons in warcraft and sorcery.  This was the final cord - straw," Thor corrects himself, "and they chose to act in a way which would change all things, had they been victorious - as they were defeated, many felt safe in expressing how justified the opinions were in thinking poorly of my cousins."   Thor sighed, sounding very much mortal, and if he's not looking at you, its okay - this is too weighty a thing to have those alien eyes looking at you as its told.   "One is presently imprisoned, while the other opted for exile."

Now he looks at you, and you feel both very very small, and honored that a mighty one such as him is taking time with you.  "I saw enough of it happen the once, and I fear it has begun with my brother... but I shall not permit it a third time.  You have my word, Agent of Avengers, that I will speak on your behalf, that I..." and he pauses while something works in his throat and his tongue.  "I have your back, as the idiom is in your Realm."  And now he leans back, grinning like a madman - not that you think him mad - and he says, "And who would speak against me?  For I am Thor, and I am mighty!"  And, when he leans back in, adds, "Now, let us fill our trays.  For I hunger, and what I have told you, deserves a feast for us both."

And you agree to this.

Not because of Mjolnir, the god-made Hammer of the gods that can only be lifted by Thor and can break anything.

Not because Asgardians are far stronger than normal unenhanced humans.

Because he believes you...believes in you.

Only one niggle remains in your mind, and you try to hold it back.  Yet it escapes when you and he are nearly at the food:  "If I may..." you ask.  The look on Thor's face encourages you to continue, so you say, "Who are your cousins?"

"Amora you do not yet know, though I intend to ask the Scarlet Witch if she wishes to study under Amora.  Her younger sister is Lorelei, who I have recently learned has made herself known to SHIELD at this late date."

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm tempted to dub him "Nemo" - "No man" because wasn't that the name in Homer's epic?  
> :)


End file.
